Shabu dealer killed in shootout with PDEA-12 agents

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Anti-narcotics agents shot dead a shabu dealer in an entrapment operation on Friday night in Koronadal City that turned awry when he resisted arrest.

Aileen Lovitos, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-12, told reporters on Saturday that their agents were forced to neutralize the 45-year-old Jeffrey Sobusa Pudadera when he pulled out a gun and opened fire when he sensed that he had sold to them his illegal merchandise during a tradeoff in Barangay Zone 4 in Koronadal City.

PDEA-12 agents had confiscated from the slain Pudadera P105,000 worth of shabu and a Taurus 9 millimeter pistol with serial numbers TVL 09773.

A resident of Navarro Subdivision in Barangay General Paulino Santos in Koronadal City, Pudadera, who had used his being a tricycle driver as a cover for his shabu peddling activities, had reportedly eluded several anti-narcotics stings targeting him that different law-enforcement units had laid in recent months.

Local officials who helped plan Pudadera’s supposed peaceful entrapment told reporters that PDEA-12 agents had no way but to return fire when he shot one of them, sparking a brief shootout that resulted in his death.